Two Great Books on Native Landscaping

Two Great Books on Native Landscaping

by Ken Druse with Margaret Roach. Clark-son Potter Publishers, New York, 1994. Hardcover, 248 pages, $40.

by Carole Ottesen. Harmony Books, Crown Publishers, New York, 1995. Hardcover, 354 pages, $50.

While these two books aren’t exactly new and they certainly aren’t cheap, they provide a wonderful introduction to native-plant landscaping throughout North America. When it’s raining, or too cold, or too hot, or too buggy to be outside tending our gardens, these books let us sit back and envision how we can help nature restore the wild beauty of our backyards.

The Natural Habitat Garden begins with an explanation of what a natural habitat garden is and the benefits of this type of landscape—for wildlife habitat, for biodiversity, and for the simple beauty such spaces provide. Most of the rest of the book is really a photo essay of four broad habitat types found in North America: grasslands, drylands, wetlands, and woodlands. For each of these, Druse—an acclaimed photographer and one of the people who has done the most to popularize natural gardening—offers breath-taking photographs of the hundreds of natural gardens he has visited. He relates the stories of gardeners from coast to coast who have opted to landscape with native plants instead of cultivated exotics and, in the process, have created dramatic and beautiful native habitats in their backyards.

Interspersed throughout the book are useful tips on species selection, planting strategies, and the ethics of native plant landscaping—buying only nursery-propagated stock, for example, or salvaging from land being lost to development. A concise appendix provides information on native plant propagation, integrated pest management, and listings of native plant nurseries, native plant societies, places to visit, and resources for more information.

The Native Plant Primer, while also large and well illustrated, is much more specific in its treatment of native plant landscaping. The book begins with a region-by-region tour of native landscaping throughout North America, dividing the continent into nine general regions. In a first-person, travel-log style, Ottesen provides general descriptions of the habitats encountered and listings of plant species appropriate for native plantings in these regions. Most of the rest of the book—the part we found most useful—are species descriptions categorized by the type of plant: perennials, annuals, grasses, ferns, water plants, vines, shrubs, and trees. These species write-ups include a general paragraph or two, detailed information (including, in most cases, flower description, height, regions, landscape uses, culture, and propagation), and usually a photograph.

The Appendix includes an excellent two-page discussion about the source of wildflowers and how to be sure you are not getting plants that were collected from the wild. Also provided are a list of native plant nurseries, a sampling of places to see native plants, lists of plants adapted to specialized conditions (plants for attracting birds, plants for attracting butterflies, drought-tolerant plants, salt-tolerant plants, etc.), and a bibliography. If we find fault in

The Native Plant Primer it is in the sloppy photo layout. In the species-specific part of the book, the photographs are often on a different page spread from the text, and we noticed at least three photos that were put in either upside-down or on their sides.

The two books are quite different and complement each other quite well. Look to

The Natural Habitat Garden for the inspiration of gorgeous photographs and eloquent writing, but

The Native Plant Primer offers more in the way of specifics. Both are unusual in that they cover all of North America. This means that a lot of the material won’t be pertinent to your region, but it makes the books more broadly applicable and helps get the important message about native landscaping into the hands of more people.